In an unexpected turn of events, Republican party nominee Donald Trump cinched the electoral vote and is now on track to become the 45th President of the United States. Left somewhat dumbfounded and quite angry, hordes of people went onto social media denouncing Trump and saying that they would never accept him as president.

So, how did Trump win? When president elect Trump first announced that he would run, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver enthusiastically encouraged him to run by saying, “I will personally write you a campaign check now on behalf of this country which does not want you to be president, but which badly wants you to run.” When Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher asked his panel of guests “which Republican candidate has the best chance of winning the general election,” Ann Coulter, a conservative social and political commentator, responded with “Donald Trump,” which prompted an outburst of laughter from the audience and other panel members. Keith Ellison, a Bernie-endorsed DNC chair nominee, said on ABC’s This Week that “This man [Donald Trump] has got some momentum, and we better be ready for the fact that he might be leading the Republican ticket.” He was met with “I know you don’t believe that” and laughter.

Earlier this year, almost everybody justifiably thought that Trump was a joke, but now these people aren’t laughing. The mainstream media underestimated Trump and laughed at those who said that Trump had a legitimate chance at the presidency. CBS’s Managing director for politics Will Rahn wrote an article titled “The Unbearable Smugness of the Press” in which he perfectly describes how Clinton lost the election. He mentions how they [the mainstream media] “were all tacitly or explicitly #WithHer,” and that journalists love mocking Trump supporters, “insult[ing] their appearances[and] dismiss[ing]them as racists and sexists.”

Dismissing the views of a group large enough to win an election by calling them sexist and racist is precisely what allowed Donald Trump to win this election. These people weren’t being heard, were constantly ridiculed, and had a legitimate reason to be angry. It’s for this reason that anti-Trump protests/riots need to end. These protesters are likely the same people who ridiculed Trump for possibly not accepting the results of the election a few weeks prior. Protesters can’t change the minds of Trump voters by protesting or rioting. These protests are essentially campaigning for Trump’s re-election, as many of the Trump voters will likely feel more and more angst towards the rest of America and vote for Trump again if he’s up for reelection in 2020. The best course of action is to simply admit that Hillary Clinton was a flawed candidate and move forward with humility.

Even the narrative that this election was a “whitelash” is almost completely false. In fact, a New York Times exit poll found that while Trump only had 1% more of the white vote than Romney did back in 2012, he had 7% more of the Black vote, 8% more of the Latino vote, 11% more of the Asian vote and 53% of the vote of white women. This begs the question: if Donald Trump was truly as sexist and racist as the media made him out to be, why would more minorities vote for him over Romney? For what reason would white women vote for Trump? Either they’re as racist and sexist and Trump has been made out to be, they ignored the accusations of racism and sexism thrown at Trump, or Donald Trump isn’t as bad as he was made out to be and nor are his supporters. It’s ironic how the same Clinton campaign that coined the slogan “Stronger Together” has yet to condemn these divisive protests around the nation. But looking towards the future, as Dave Chapelle said in his SNL monologue, “I’m gonna give him a chance.” Trump’s quote “it’s always good to be underestimated” has held true, he’s going to be our next president, and we must accept that.